Hey All,Forgive me for saying this, but the main reason why I'm posting this is because I'm working on a "Jump" and "1984" patch for my newly acquired Ensoniq SD-1 32 Voice. So far, the factory brass presets that are on the synth are a bit cheesy, but I'm starting to get a decent "Jump" sound out of the "Fat-Brass" preset. Here are my questions, and hopefully there are some SD-1 users out there that can help me out with this:

-Is there a better patch than the "Fat-Brass" preset that I can use to build the "Jump" sound?-I can't find any resonance control on the SD-1. Is there an alternative? (Solved)-Does anyone have any settings for constructing the "Jump" sound?-How do I use the envelope filters on the SD-1 to create the characteristic "swoosh" of Van Halen's 1984 track?-How do I turn off velocity sensitivity on the SD-1 to get a full-volume attack every time?

Thanks so much for looking, and if I can get any good sounds out of this, maybe I will upload the MIDI files (for use with MidiQuest or similar software).

Update (03-05-2014)I have found a viable alternative to resonance control. By using the LFO at a high setting, you can create that "throaty" sound that's needed to reproduce the Jump lead tone. My only complaint with the current Jump tone I have is the overly "sharp" (not musically) sounding attacks. I'll look into this.

Cheers!Eren Semonik

Last edited by Eren Semonik on Sun May 04, 2014 1:52 am, edited 2 times in total.

Cheers!Eren Semonik

I am not a "synth doctor!" Any advice is offered "as-is", so take it as you must, but I am not liable for anything stupid that you do. Capiche?

It's impossible, you need resonance for all of the patches. Especially the bass sweep for 1984. For these kind of sounds you'll really need an analogue or virtual analogue synth. If these are the kind of sounds you'll primarily be making you'll need to sell the SD-1 and buy something else, provided you don't have the money already to just go ahead and buy something else.

Rezisehtnys wrote:It's impossible, you need resonance for all of the patches. Especially the bass sweep for 1984. For these kind of sounds you'll really need an analogue or virtual analogue synth. If these are the kind of sounds you'll primarily be making you'll need to sell the SD-1 and buy something else, provided you don't have the money already to just go ahead and buy something else.

I see where you're coming from, but the resonance/bass sweep is no longer an issue. I have successfully been able to use the LFO to get a resonant tone out of the SD-1

Cheers!Eren Semonik

I am not a "synth doctor!" Any advice is offered "as-is", so take it as you must, but I am not liable for anything stupid that you do. Capiche?

Eren Semonik wrote:Any idea on how to accomplish this? Sorry if I sound like a noob, because this is my first actual synthesizer.

Not an ideal choice to learn synthesis with. You might want to look at one of the modern analog mono synths with lots of sliders (Arturia MiniBrute, Novation Bass Station II, etc.) to learn basic subtractive synthesis.

yes, many of the early 90s digital synthesizers are less than ideal for learning synthesis due to that reason. I really learned synthesis on the V-station VST, between the Sound on Sound synthesis series and Fred Wells' books.

Anyway, set one of the waveforms you are using to the resonant wavetable, and adjust its pitch to match the cutoff point of your filter. Set the modulation source of the pitch of this oscillator to match whatever you are using to modulate the filter. You adjust the position of the wavetable to change the amount of resonance, and this can be modulated as well if you are changing the amount of resonance.